250 Box Challenge

3:37 PM, Monday November 4th 2024

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Imgur: https://imgur.com/a/75iGLa5

Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered enterta...

Wow, that was quite the ride! I went through a total rollercoaster of emotions—fed up, excited, tired, bored, and back to excited again! Looking back at my 250 cubes, I can definitely spot a bunch of mistakes, but honestly, I see those as part of the learning journey. I’m really proud of myself for sticking with it and improving little by little.

At first, I was using colored pencils to draw the edges, but then I realized I needed something with a thinner line to make it more legible.

Anyway, I’m feeling pretty good about everything now and ready to move on with the course. I’m more confident than ever that I can complete drawAbox!

Thanks!

Guille Ibanez

0 users agree
2:19 AM, Friday November 8th 2024

Hi there, I'll be handling your box challenge critique.

Not only does the challenge help deepen your understanding of important concepts but it shows your desire to learn as well. That being said I'll try to keep this critique fairly brief so you can get working on the next steps as soon as possible.

Things you did well:

  • Good work drawing your construction lines confidently, this keeps your lines smooth and prevents wobbling.

  • When hatching you're taking the time to space each line evenly which shows that care and thought is being put into each line. This helps your boxes appear solid and tidy rather than rushed.

  • You're doing a great job of experimenting with orientations, proportions and rates of foreshortening. Experimenting is an important habit to build when learning any new skill, it helps form a more well rounded understanding. I hope you'll continue to display and nurture this habit in the future.

Things you can work on:

  • Unfortunately quite consistently throughout the challenge you're extending your lines in the wrong direction. Instead of extending them away from the viewer you're placing your vanishing points between the viewer and your boxes. This results in your boxes becoming distorted because your lines are diverging from where your vanishing points should actually be. Some examples of this are nearly every box in your first 50, 222, 236, 239, 242, 245, and 246. Remember that your starting Y shape will always be aligned with your vanishing points, and because of this you should never have to guess how to extend or converge your lines, they have to extend to those vanishing points. If you're unsure of how to do this consistently I would recommend re-watching how Uncomfortable uses his starting Y in the video here.

  • Not as large an issue but still worth pointing out is that you're sometimes shifting into drawing 2 point perspective rather than 3 point. Due to the fact that we want to be thinking about all 3 vanishing points, we're working in 3 point, otherwise some of our sets of lines would be parallel (1 set would be parallel in 2 point, 2 sets would be parallel in 1 point). Starting out with a Y guarantees you'll be in 3 point since 3 planes will be implied and facing the viewer. Some examples where you're not utilizing a starting Y are boxes 237, 240 and 250.

  • There are times when your lines converge in pairs or you attempt to keep your lines a bit too parallel which results in them diverging. This is an example of lines converging in pairs, and this shows the relation between each line in a set and their respective vanishing point. The inner pair of lines will be quite similar unless the box gets quite long and the outer pair can vary a lot depending on the location of the vanishing point. Move it further away and the lines become closer to parallel while moving it closer increases the rate of foreshortening.

The key things we want to remember from this exercise are that our lines should always converge as a set not in pairs, never diverge from the vanishing point and due to perspective they won't be completely parallel.

I won't be moving you on to the next lesson just yet, each lesson builds off concepts in the previous course material so if you move forward with un-addressed issues you end up just creating further issues on top of them.

Unfortunately a lot of your boxes ended up diverging due to your lines being extended incorrectly and this lead to you not getting as much out of the challenge as you could have. Line extensions are the most important part of the challenge as they show you how far off your convergences were from your vanishing points and get you to really think about the 3D space you're attempting to create. While a total redo wouldn't be unwarranted your lines are looking really confident and I generally don't like giving complete redos for the box challenge unless absolutely necessary as it's definitely a grind to do it a second time.

Instead I'll be asking for you to complete 100 additional boxes. I recommend doing 20 from the first section, 20 from the second and 60 from the final just to make sure you give yourself the chance to go over the instructions and not miss out on any important steps.

Once you've completed your boxes reply to this critique with a link to them, I'll address anything that needs to be worked on and once you've shown you're ready I'll move you on to the next lesson.

I know you can do this and look forward to seeing your work.

Next Steps:

100 more boxes please.

When finished, reply to this critique with your revisions.
10:55 AM, Wednesday November 13th 2024
edited at 1:04 PM, Nov 13th 2024

Hello,

Thank you for your review. I realize now that I hadn’t fully grasped the challenge initially. Re-watching the videos made everything much clearer. I’ve completed the next 100 as requested, and you can find them here: https://imgur.com/a/CUSkygp

Does this work for you? Looking forward to progress with the course : )

edited at 1:04 PM, Nov 13th 2024
1:18 AM, Thursday November 14th 2024

These are looking solid, they're all in 3 point perspective, and you're extending your lines correctly. Good work.

I'll mark your submission complete and move you on to the next lesson.

Keep practicing boxes and previous exercises as warmups and best of luck in lesson 2.

Next Steps:

Move on to lesson 2.

This critique marks this lesson as complete.
8:31 AM, Friday November 22nd 2024

Thank you very much. Already making progress in Lesson 2!

The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something we've used ourselves, or know to be of impeccable quality. If you're interested, here is a full list.
Marco Bucci's Getting Started with Digital Painting

Marco Bucci's Getting Started with Digital Painting

Marco Bucci's got a ton of great courses available on proko.com, including some of the best videos you can find on using colour and light. Since a lot of our students want to break into working with digital painting however, I thought this course in particular would be a great start to get into the weeds with how to navigate the confusing world of layers, brushes, and more.

This course highlights programs across the full spectrum of options, ranging from the current industry standard Adobe Photoshop, to the Free-and-Open-Source darling Krita, as well as the mobile favourite, Procreate.

This website uses cookies. You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.